Homecoming
by nargly
Summary: A mysterious woman sneaks into a Harmony home. Includes Pilar.


_**homecoming**, pg  
passions, 749_  
A mysterious woman sneaks into a Harmony home. Includes Pilar.  
**Note:** This was written around 2001, so please excuse any discrepancies it may have from the current storyline. It's certainly not my best work, but it's funny to see what I thought was decent writing when I was in high school.

* * *

The young woman crept silently towards the side window of the house hoping no one would hear her. There no light out to guide her anymore. The midday sun had already been swallowed by the night sky.

She stepped on a twig lying on the snow, generating a loud crack. Or at least to her own paranoid mind it was loud. The young woman sucked in her breath. She could feel and hear her deafening heartbeat pulsating in her ears.

She surveyed the area around her in fear that someone had heard her. If anyone would find her, she would not have a chance to shock them the way she wished.

Once she was sure nobody had heard her she proceeded to look into the window. No lights were on. She shifted her position to view a wider setting of the room. She still didn't see or hear anyone. 'It's so late. Don't they have a curfew!'

With much effort, the young woman pried the window open high enough to allow her limber body to enter. She stepped in carefully making sure not to trip.

Without a light, she felt blind in the room. She trailed awkwardly along the wall in search of a switch. As she cautiously made her way, a table blocked her path. She traced the edges of the table so she could determine how to walk around it driving an object off the table. "Damn!" she exclaimed.

She continued to search for the light switch. When she turned on the light, she wasn't surprised by what she saw: a modest, middle-class living room. She went back to the table to find out what she had pushed off.

A picture.

A family picture.

In it was a middle-aged woman, two men, and a young woman. They all shared the same dark brown hair, brown eyes, and tan skin.

The older woman, probably in her early fifties, was still attractive. She had a warm and peaceful smile on her lips. Next was a man in his late twenties. He smiled enthusiastically at the camera. The young woman discovered that if she looked closely she could see small wrinkles forming beneath his eyes. The other woman in the picture wore a graduation gown, smiling proudly with a high-school diploma in front of her. The younger man had been caught off guard when the picture was taken. In the picture, he was smiling, but looking at something out of the camera's range of view.

The young woman traced her finger along the outline of their figures, committing every detail to memory. She almost dropped the picture when she heard the eerie howl of the winter wind.

"The wind, stupid. The wind," she whispered to herself.

She placed the picture back down to its original spot and moved on to explore the rest of the room. The room was relatively well kept except for the fashion magazines piled up on the coffee table and the large bowl of half eaten popcorn on the end of the couch.

The young woman sat down comfortably on the couch. 'What would it have been like to live here?' she wondered.

She was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of someone outside the front door. She quickly turned off the light and stood in the foyer as her heart raced rapidly.

* * *

Pilar pulled her house key out of her pocket. It felt as if the winter wind was gnawing at her cheeks. She quickly stepped in her home quickly shutting the door. "Dios mio, how much colder can the winter get?" she said as she stomped her feet on the rug.

The young woman stood there pale white. 'That's her voice,' she thought. She had not been this close to Pilar's in thirteen years.

The woman watched Pilar in an awe at her simple movements of taking the scarf off her neck and setting aside, removing her jacket, and her hair falling in cascades past her shoulders. Pilar cupped her hands together and exhaled in them a few times then rubbed them together.

_This is really Pilar..._

* * *

When Pilar turned around she gasped at the sight of the young woman. She was here! Here in front of her!

The woman soon recovered from her own shock and reminded herself who Pilar really was to her. "Well, it's nice to see you too, _Mother_," said the young woman, emphasizing her last word with a slight scowl on her face.

"Miha," whispered Pilar. "Paloma!"


End file.
